Dapper Dan Brand News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Because you grow up in a world where fashion is so important. a lot of people in hip hop have aspirations and aspiration is can you go in to the store and buy that brand? >> when you think of versace, ralph lauren, it seems like it's far away. it's a dream. somewhere where you would like to go. those people could care less about you. but, it seems like if i can grab that and wear that, i'm living a fantasy. ♪ ♪ >> low lives originated in brownsville and st. john in crown heights, two crews getting fly crews that came together and created a big brotherhood.

>> being in new york with so many people walking past each other on the street every day, you get a chance -- it's like a runway, you know what i sneen all the streets were like runways for different clothing brands. >> there was always all sorts of different flavors in the hood. there wasn't one definitive sort of style. >> guy from brooklyn would have on shark skins, glasses with no lens in it and a crease like i don't know what. that was a brooklyn cat. he didn't have to say anything. you knew he was from brooklyn. a guy from harlem would have on, let's say a ve hour sweet sweat suit. whate...

And cross colors was in a fashion show and i saw karl jones and asked him how to get in to department stores and i want to get my brand out there and he said come to my office tomorrow and i will be willing to talk to you. i went to his office and he said i saw your stuff and i would be willing to help you out. he invited me to become partners with him in the business two weeks later. >> he was very selective in who he gave his clothes to. he gave it to tupacs, more sophisticated guys. cross colors was tlc, snoop dogg, things of that nature. we made sure they had a different vision and brandin...

We wrote $300,000 worth of orders out of this hotel room. we get turned down by 27 banks. we go to my house and get my furniture and sell what we can. the rest we cannot sell we burn oil drums. it takes two weeks because we want to get it out of there and we move industrial sewing machines in there and hire a staff. we slept in sleeping bags next to the machines and for a year we would crank it out of the house. that started to populate the stores and stores started to sell fleece and sweatshirts and people started to realize who we were. >> fubu was able to do what cross colors didn't in term...

Run to the gate. aaron b, rock kim, big daddy cane, salt 'n' pepa, teddy raleigh. i'm not mad at you. i still have a check for $700 that bounced. ♪ [ sirens ] >> let's put the nail in the coffin, first they raided me broke. part two was crank out anything i do on your mtv and mtv gave birth to the rap game. that was their coverage. >> should have come up with the dapper dan brand. he definite ly could have. >> dapper dan was tom ford. before tom ford, he should have been hired instead of shut down. he should have been hired for one of those elite clothes brands back then. he hadded the fores...